General characteristics of the included randomised controlled trials (n=200)
| Overall | |
| n (%)* | |
| Number of trial authors; median (IQR) | 9 (6–14)† |
| Paper is the first full-text report of the trial findings | 171 (86%) |
| Classification of the income level of the country in which the first author’s institution is located: | |
| High income | 179 (90%) |
| Upper middle income | 15 (8%) |
| Lower middle income | 4 (2%) |
| Low income | 2 (1%) |
| Type of intervention | |
| Pharmacological | 97 (49%) |
| Surgical/invasive procedure | 42 (21%) |
| Non-invasive procedure | 11 (6%) |
| Lifestyle intervention | 15 (8%) |
| Screening/diagnostic intervention | 9 (5%) |
| Psycho-therapeutic intervention | 4 (2%) |
| Rehabilitation | 6 (3%) |
| Other | 16 (8%) |
| Type of control | |
| Active control (as opposed to non-active) | 82 (41%) |
| Number of trial sites; median (IQR) | 2 (1–17) |
| Number of randomised participants; median (IQR) | 160 (60–485) |
| Level of risk of bias associated with allocation concealment | |
| High risk | 4 (2%) |
| Low risk | 59 (30%) |
| Unclear | 137 (69%) |
| Reporting of conflicts of interest | |
| Not reported | 12 (6%) |
| Reported with no conflicts of interest disclosed | 80 (40%) |
| Reported with conflicts of interest disclosed | 108 (54%) |
| Inclusion of a funding statement | |
| Included (as opposed to not included) | 178 (89%) |
*For continuous variables, numbers refer to median (IQR), indicated in the relevant row.
†The number of trial authors per trial ranged between 1 and 91.